On This Day: 'Golden Girls' star Bea Arthur dies

On April 25, 2009, Bea Arthur, who went from high-profile supporting roles on Broadway to stardom in groundbreaking TV sitcoms "Maude" and "The Golden Girls," died in Los Angeles. She was 86.

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UPI Staff

Actor Bea Arthur poses attends the 13th annual GLAAD Media Awards held on April 1, 2002, in New York City. She died April 25, 2009. File Photo by Ezio Petersen/UPI | License Photo

President George W. Bush delivers remarks at the dedication of his Presidential Library in Dallas on April 25, 2013. File Photo by Ian Halperin/UPI | License Photo

The Eiffel Tower is lit by fireworks on Bastille Day in Paris July 14. On April 25, 1792, "La Marseillaise," composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, became the French national anthem. File Photo by Maya Vidon-White/UPI | License Photo

Nepalesep walk in front of collapsed buildings in Kathmandu, which was damaged in the earthquake April 25, 2015. File Photo by Sanjog Manandhar/UPI | License Photo

April 25 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1507, German geographer and mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller published a book in which he named the newly discovered continent of the New World "America" after the man he mistakenly thought had discovered it, Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

In 1792, "La Marseillaise," composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, became the French national anthem.

In 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal at Port Said, Egypt.

In 1901, New York became the first state to require license plates on automobiles.

In 1915, the Battle of Gallipoli began when Allied troops launched an invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula, landing at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles. The conflict lasted eight months, two weeks and one day, and ended in an Ottoman victory.

In 1945, delegates of 46 countries gathered in San Francisco to organize a permanent United Nations.

In 1967, the first law legalizing abortion in the United States was signed into law by Colorado Gov. John Arthur Love.